🪖 c. 1944 | U.S. Marines in the Pacific | Assault on a Cave Strongpoint What you’re seeing:
A U.S. flamethrower team attacks a fortified cave in the Pacific War around 1944. The camera sits just behind the operator as he fires short bursts into a sandbagged cave mouth while an assistant manages the hose and other Marines keep the opening covered. The defenders inside are never shown. Why were flamethrowers used?
Japanese forces often defended islands from trenches, bunkers and cave systems that were extremely hard to clear with rifles and grenades. Flamethrowers let assault teams blast burning fuel into enclosed positions, driving defenders out or destroying the strongpoint on islands like Iwo Jima and Okinawa. How did they work?
Backpack flamethrowers carried fuel and compressed gas. The gas pushed fuel through a hose to the nozzle, where an ignition system turned it into a jet of burning liquid that could reach tens of meters, stick to surfaces and burn inside caves and bunkers. ...